1816 60th Anniversary 2018 AGM Weekend in London

The weekend will begin on Friday evening with our 60th Anniversary Dinner at the Reform Club in Pall Mall (1841 Sir Charles Barry). This is a separate optional event. The annual general meeting beginning at 11am on Saturday morning will be held at Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, Kensington (1901-6 GF Bodley). A sandwich lunch will be served in the church after the AGM. Saturday afternoon will be devoted to guided walks around Kensington and the three options are: Albertopolis, including visits to the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Alexandra House and The Victoria and Albert Museum. Churches in Kensington, a walk led by Michael Hall, including St Augustine’s, Queens Gate (Butterfield 1870-7), the Russian Orthodox Cathedral (L Vulliamy 1848-9) and St Stephen’s, Gloucester Road (Joseph Peacock 1866-7). Artists’ Houses in Kensington, a walk led by David McDonald, former Conservation Officer for Kensington & Chelsea Council. We cannot guarantee that you will get your preferred choice of walk. The walks will be followed by tea. On Sunday morning there will be three walks to choose from: Hackney, exploring its transformation from village to Victorian suburb. This will be led by Robert Hradsky, a Conservation Adviser for Alan Baxter Associates and Hackney resident. Whitechapel, looking at some well known and some less well known nineteenth-century buildings, taking in the former Church of St Augustine with St Philip (Arthur Cawston 1888-92), now a medical library, and other buildings associated with the Royal London Hospital, then along Whitechapel Road to the Whitechapel Gallery (CH Townsend 1898-9). We then go past the Cooperative Wholesale Society’s buildings on Leman Street, to wind up at Wilton’s Music Hall and Wellclose Square, with many other Victorian buildings to be seen en route. The walk will be led by Peter Guillery of the Survey of London which is currently working on the area. Angel and Islington which will look at some fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings that help to give such a distinctive character to the centre and old village core of Islington. Starting and finishing at Angel station, it will include the former Royal Agricultural Hall, the Central Post Office and other commercial buildings, Barry’s Holy Trinity Church and various examples of model housing. The walk will be led by Alec Forshaw who was Principal Conservation and Design Officer for Islington Council for many years. We cannot guarantee that you will get your preferred choice of walk. Sunday afternoon will be devoted to a boat tour (separate optional event), including lunch, along the River Thames surveying the nineteenth-century development and architecture of central London’s embankments and the skyline beyond, offering a fresh perspective on Victorian London. It will be led by Benedict O’Looney, architect and aquatic London tour guide. The boat trip will end in time for members to go to Evensong (optional) at 6pm at All Saints, Margaret Street (William Butterfield 1849-59) in Marylebone.